Wednesday, April 10, 2013

i think i've mentioned before...i'm kind of short. and even with heels sometimes...skirts just don't work for me on the length. throw in the whole maxi skirt craze and well...i'm kind of like hmmmm, yeeeeah, that's not going to work.
case in point:

this totally cute skirt i found at maurices
it was the right color, the right size, the right price, and totally the wrong length.
story of my life.

so how did i get from point A of having a too long skirt that puddled at the bottom of my feet to point B of having an awesome skirt that looks like it was made for you you ask?

just a few steps and we will get you on your way with the right length and adorably fitting maxi skirt.
no more tripping happening for you!

first things first.

go in your closet and find the shoes you will most likely be wearing with your skirt.
obviously i have a thing for wedges and who can go wrong with wedges and maxi skirts?!

since last time i blogged and bragged about the awesome warm weather...we've had a little bit of a cold snap again and well the closed toed linen Target shoes won this last time i wore the skirt...but i can NOT wait to wear my open toed sandals once the weather cooperates again!

okay next:
-put on your shoes
-turn your skirt inside out and put it on where you would normally wear you skirt if it weren't dragging on the floor.

-pinch up the fabric around your waist and look down or look in the mirror to see where you would like your skirt to fall.
mine was around 4"!!! total. (so 2" folded in your pinched fabric)
-pin in place your folded fabric right under your waist band area.

-once you have one small section pinned in place. use it as your guide to go around the rest of the skirt pinning in place the folded fabric.
-take off the skirt leaving it wrong side out.
-grab some matching thread (in this case i used navy)

now lets start sewing!

-place your sewing machine on the zigzag stitch.
on my BERNINAB580 it's the #2 stitch it was at the 1.50 stitch length and i then shortened my stitch width to 1.7.

-placing the pinched folded fabric on one side and the rest of the skirt and the waist band on the other side, stitch as close to the waist band as you can with your zig zag stitch.
(why the zig zag? so that when you put on and off your skirt there's stretch and no threads break!)

- go around your whole skirt top.

ready for the scary step?
-cut off your excess pinched folded fabric. carefully so you don't cut your stitches and you don't cut anything you shouldn't (i've been known to do both!)

-when you turn your skirt right side out...you will have a shortened skirt that looks pretty darn good and will fit like it was made just for your height.

pair it with a cute plain shirt, a pretty necklace and ahem an angry beaver look on your face...and you are ready to go!
well minus the angry beaver look. theres a reason why i normally crop my face when editing pictures. oh well.
go shorten those too long maxi skirts!!!
we'll talk soon.

25 comments:

Great idea! One of my maxi skirts was just ok when I bought it but over time has stretched and could do with this treatment. So much easier than trying to fuss with a hem (tried that somewhat unsuccessfully recently).

Oh, that's neat! i can use that when I help friends out sometimes. Me? 5'10" and cannot find a maxi-skirt that is long enough LOL! I guess that's why I'm going to try and make my own :) Thanks for sharing with us! Cindy

Haha! Just had to laugh... since I'm 5'11", NEVER in my life has anything been too long on me! And heels of any type? Nnnnopppe! Cute, cute skirt though. Can I have the cut off portion? I could probably sew it to something I own to make it fit better ;o)And my 14 year old is already 5'9"... thankfully she's good at volleyball...

Ooh!! I have that exact skirt and LOVE it! It's so comfortable that it feels like you're wearing pjs in public. :) luckily, though, I'm 5''10" so no taking up for me. I was excited to finally find a skirt long enough.

Thanks so much for this!! At 5'2" I hardly ever find something that is the right length. I love long skirts but also like being able to walk around when wearing them. haha This is awesome...can't wait to give it a try!

I am 5'2" and you are a genius! I have pinned jersey knits ten ways to Sunday and just couldn't quite put my finger on the solution. I finally, successfully shortened a maxi skirt without completely jacking the hemline and I am soooooo excited! Thank you! Stacey McDonald (b/c I can't remember my Google password!)

Thanks sooo much for this sooo easy tutorial. I lucked up on a zigzagged maxi skirt for $10 bucks in November at T.J. Maxx, here in Indiana. I will be trying this very soon. I'm also 5'2, lol. Now I can buy those cute maxi dresses that I thought were made just for tall gals, lol !!!